Free Microchipping Mobile Clinic Saturday in North Reno

You can get your pet microchipped for free while doing a little shopping this weekend and next week.

Washoe County Animal Services will have its mobile command center set up at the Petco at 2970 Northtowne Lane Saturday from 10am-3pm. Pet owners are asked to bring their dogs properly leashed and their cats in appropriate cat carriers.

And if you can't make that, they'll be at Scolari's at 5430 Sun Valley Boulevard Tuesday from noon-4pm.

Regional Animal Services plans to host mobile microchip clinics on a regular basis throughout the next year. Locations and dates for future mobile clinics will be announced at WashoeAnimals.com as information becomes available. Microchips for the mobile clinics were provided by Maddie's Fund®.

Free microchipping is also be available from the Regional Animal Services Facility on Longley Lane between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (excluding holidays) through the end of January 2014.

This is all part of a campaign to get at least 5,000 pets microchipped this year. Last month, they already hit the 1,000 mark.

A microchip is a small, electronic chip enclosed in a glass cylinder about the size of a grain of rice. The microchip is activated by a scanner which receives information about the pet's owners and home from the chip.

In most cases, microchipped pets can be scanned in the field and returned to their homes without ever having to be brought to the shelter, reducing stress for the pet, the pet owner and the cost of operating Animal Services.

Once a pet is microchipped, Animal Services encourages the owner to register their microchip online at homeagain.com to ensure proper identification if the pet should ever become lost outside of Washoe County.

For more information about this special microchipping campaign, visit WashoeAnimals.com.